Spending time among the Aloes

Before the atmospheric rivers moved in this week I paid a visit to South Coast Botanic Garden specifically to tour the garden's aloe collection.  Several years ago, SCBG expanded its Desert Garden, adding an adjacent area focused on those plants.  The area is roughly the same size as the original Desert Garden.  It isn't highlighted on SCBG's website or its map; however, both of those resources are in serious need of updates.

The aloe blooms are at their peak at this time of year.

There's still a good deal of empty space in this area but it's slowly filling in

There are some softer foliage plants mixed in with the succulents, including Centaurea 'Silver Feathers', Euphorbia characias, and California poppies (Eschscholzia californica).  The smaller green clumps shown in this photo are poppy plants, not yet in bloom.

I can't definitively identify all the aloes in this post.  I've found plant tags for some of them during prior visits and I've made educated guesses with respect to others but some identifications have eluded me.

My phone's ID app identified the plant on the left as Aloe rubroviola but it couldn't help me with the other 2 aloes shown here

My guess was that this is Aloe capitata x quartziticola but a photograph of SCBG's recent blooms suggests that its a yellow form of Aloe elegans

A nearby tag suggested this is a cultivar of Aloe chabaudii

Aloe 'David Verity'

Aloe 'Erik the Red'

Aloe marlothii

Aloe petricola

Aloe 'Spiney' (hybrid)

Aloe striata or a hybrid of that species

Aloe vanbalenii

Of course, I checked out other parts of the garden while I was there too.  Here are some of the highlights:

The coral trees throughout the garden are blooming.  This one may be Erythrina x sykesii.

Closeups of the Erythrina flowers

Acacia cultriformis

Fuchsia paniculata, an exceptionally tall variety

Rotheca myricoides 'Ugandense' (formerly known as Clerodendrum ugandense).  This plant is larger and denser than any other specimen I've ever seen.  It's described online as "lanky" but the trunk (or possibly mass of trunks) doesn't look lanky to me.

SCBG is currently observing the Lunar New Year.  The event was celebrated using both decorations and special events.

Decorations recognizing the event included lanterns, a selfie station, a wishing tree, and a zodiac map.  The wishing tree held ribbons with messages penned by visitors.  Most mentioned health and happiness but there were some unusual ones in the mix I looked at!

A couple of ornamental cherry trees also offered a nod to the Lunar New Year

There were some recent renovations made to portions of the front garden.

The bed with the sign on the left is fairly empty at present and I was distressed to realize the the tree-sized Tithonia diversifolia (aka Mexican sunflower) that previously occupied the space appears to be gone.  The nice mix of Pelargoniums that formerly occupied another bed, shown on the right, are also gone.

Negligible progress appears to have been made on the construction of the new children's garden.

There's no evidence of construction activity since my visit last November.  However, metalworks, presumably intended to support the structure that will allow people to "climb" through the banyan grove, have been deposited on top of the earth mounds that have been in place for months.

The plant sale kiosk was disappointing.

The plants were a hodge-podge and not in particularly good shape.  I miss the healthy specimens formerly propagated by SCBG volunteers from plants grown onsite.

Meanwhile, back at home, I offered another of my plant giveaways.

My little propagation area was overcrowded so I used a giveaway to clear space.  I included a few Aeonium arboreum rosettes, 3 Agave funkiana (with 3 more handed off directly to select neighbors), and 16 pups of Aloe striata x maculata.  All but 3 of the Aloes were picked off within a day.

We picked up nearly half an inch of rain between Wednesday and Thursday morning.  We're expecting another round of light rain overnight into Friday morning but our seasonal total (counted from October 1, 2024) stood at 1.90 inches as of yesterday evening.  Santa Ana winds may blow this weekend but hopefully the ground is damp enough to prevent another wildfire in the near term.  Yet another atmospheric river next week could deliver an additional inch and a half of rain in my location. 

Best wishes for a pleasant weekend, nothwithstanding the stream of audacious actions and threats streaming out of the White House, which our congressional representatives have failed to constructively address.  Even though I'm very concerned about what's transpired over the past two weeks, I don't want to contribute to any anxiety others may be experiencing by sharing my own feelings or opinions in any detail in these blog posts, which are intended to focus on plants and gardening.  My only general suggestion is that you act when you feel you can make an impact and steer clear of the bulk of the muck when you believe you can't.  I'm still hoping certain members of Congress will develop a spine but, if they don't, we'll all have the power to act on our consciences during the mid-term elections.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

The Aloe blooms drew me in but the flowering trees and shrubs captured my heart

I woke Thursday morning to news of Southern California's first significant wildfire of 2022.  It had broken out overnight in Laguna Beach, fifty-plus miles to the south of us, after a stretch of unseasonably warm, dry and windy weather that's affected a large part of the region.  This isn't something we'd generally expect in the middle of our so-called rainy season.  Rather than fuss about in my own garden, I decided to visit my local botanic garden to see how it was faring.

My last visit was in early December, when the Aloes were just beginning to bloom.  I hoped to see more before their winter bloom season was over.

The succulent beds at the entrance were well-manicured

It seems I'm not the only one with lots of Aeoniums in bloom

Osteospermums offered lots of color in the Palm Circle area just inside the garden

I arrived later than I'd planned and it was already getting uncomfortably warm so I immediately headed in the direction of the Desert Garden.

While many of the photos I took look sun-bleached to me, the stark light seems to fit the Desert Garden's profile

The sea squills (Drimia maritima) appear to appreciate the shade in this area

The most spectacular Aloe I saw in bloom on this visit was this one:

This is Aloe castanea, aka the cat's tail aloe

Many of the Aloes in the extension of the Desert Garden planted with a focus on that genus were already past their peak.  There were some exceptions.

Labels were in short supply and I'm no expert at identifying these plants.  Those in the top row, left are Aloe vanbalenii and hybrids of that species.  The one in the second row, left is 'Spiney'.  I can't put names to the rest.  I love the one shown in the second row, right, but although it was planted in spots throughout the area, I never found a label to identify it.

Leaving the Desert Garden without the color fix I'd sought, I wandered on, taking note of the flowering shrubs and trees.

NoID Acacia outside what used to be the tropical greenhouse, now closed

Acacia longifolia, aka golden wattle

Small cherry tree (Prunus), planted next to one of the garden's huge Mexican sunflower trees (Tithonia diversifolia)

Other flowering cherry trees are planted in the garden's Sakura Meadow but there weren't many in full flower.  I had to wonder about the impact of our untimely heatwave.

It's somewhat hard to spot the flowers on the massive Loropetalum from a distance but they're there

Because it was so warm, I sought shade in the Banyan Grove.

Even the shade of the Moreton bay fig trees (Ficus macrophylla) wasn't as cool and damp as I'd expected

On my way back toward the exit, I noticed what may currently be the most spectacular flowering tree in the garden.

I believe this is a hybrid Handroanthus chrysotrichus x impetiginosus (aka trumpet tree, formerly classified as Tabebuia).  The flowers start out yellow and gradually turn pink as shown in a March 2021 post.

Before I got back in my car to head home, I stopped to photograph one of the pink trumpet trees blooming in the parking lot.

Handroanthis impetiginosus

Our temperature peaked in the low-80sF (27C) yesterday.  We're expecting the warm temperatures to stick around through the weekend before returning to more normal levels early next week.  There's still no rain in the forecast.  I hope your weather this weekend is more to your liking than mine is!

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party